5 New Mystery Games to Play - April 2025
Highly anticipated hits, a classic adaptation, plus some indie gems
With the month coming to a close, it’s once again time to shine a spotlight on some newly released mystery games!
Let’s get right to it — here they are:
1. Blue Prince
Welcome to Mt. Holly, where every dawn unveils a new mystery. Navigate through shifting corridors and ever-changing chambers in this genre-defying strategy puzzle adventure. But will your unpredictable path lead you to the rumored Room 46?
The standout hit of April 2025, I’ve already written about this game here.
The roguelike escape-room hybrid has only continued to grow in popularity since its release, making it the most popular mystery game of the year.
2. The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-
Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi join forces for the first time to deliver the ULTIMATE adventure game! 15 students are tasked with defending a school from grotesque monsters for 100 days. Can they make it to the end? And will they survive long enough to uncover the truth?
Fans of Danganronpa and Zero Escape have been looking forward to a game like this one for a long time, so of course I have to mention it today.
I’ve already written my thoughts on the demo, but regarding the full game, here’s what you need to know:
The game is mostly visual novel, with turn-based tactics fights for every 1 or 2 hours of reading. The battles are seamlessly woven into the story, and your “free time events” must be used strategically to power up your team for the next battle.
The game is linear until a certain point, after which you can make choices that branch the story. These choices result in 100 different endings and over 100 hours of combined content.
The story does indeed contain many mysteries, so this is definitely a mystery game. Without getting into spoilers, fans of the creators’ previous games should be very satisfied. That said, mystery is not necessarily its main focus: the story is mostly about the social links between characters and the moral dilemmas involved in war. There are also routes that diverge completely from the mystery aspects and go into totally different genres.
The game’s biggest problem is its incredibly slow pacing and repetitive dialogue, especially at the start, which might unfortunately prevent many people from getting to the more exciting parts of the story later on.
Overall, I’d say that The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy is indeed the game that fans have been waiting for. It has all the aesthetics of Danganronpa, even borrowing a lot of tropes and gameplay mechanics from it, but subverting them in different ways to create a completely new and unique experience that stands on its own.
3. Kindaichi Mystery Series: The Honjin Murders
Famous detective Kosuke Kindaichi's first case, the Honjin Murder Mystery. Honjin descendant Kenzo Ichiyanagi and his new wife Katsuko Kubo lay dead in a bed of blood on the night of their wedding. Kosuke Kindaichi searches for the truth about this locked room murder mystery. However...
This game is an adaptation of the classic 1946 Japanese mystery novel The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo, featuring the first appearance of fictional detective Kosuke Kindaichi.
The story involves solving a locked-room murder mystery that takes place in an isolated mansion covered in snow.
Rather than making the entire game a visual novel, it instead makes use of the game mechanics from No Case Should Remain Unsolved where you search through memories using word associations to piece together the story.
This game design choice has led to mixed reception, but I’ll let you decide for yourself.
4. Detective Dotson
A mystery adventure game about an aspiring actor turned detective. Dotson comes across a case where each clue unravels new details about his father’s sudden passing. Engage in a riveting story, explore vibrant modern India, and use your wits to uncover the truth.
In this game, you are tasked with solving a variety of cases in modern India, which are all ultimately connected somehow to the mysterious death of Dotson’s father.
You make deductions by searching for clues in the game world, and then pinning those clues to a corkboard to form connections between them.
The game plays as a 2.5 platformer where you can walk, run, throw, and jump as you investigate each case. The highly detailed pixel art graphics and animations seriously look good, and really bring the world of India to life.
5. Detective Penguin
Detective Penguin is the first and only physics-and-penguin-based detective game on the market. Solve cases in your own way. Interrogate suspects, find clues, or use your flippers to punch your way to the answers.
There’s been a trend of animal detectives lately, and Detective Penguin is the latest one to hit Steam. Actually, this game is a spin-off of the developer’s other game, The Greatest Penguin Heist of All Time, which has been doing quite well in Early Access.
In this game, you can explore in full 3D with ragdoll physics, where you can jump, slide, drag objects, throw punches, and make penguin noises.
More importantly, you must solve a variety of cases happening in Penguin Village. You can talk to characters around the village and gather evidence for your Mind Room, where you must piece together the truth.
Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, we were not paid to promote any of the above games. Each game was selected based on its relevance to our readers, considering its release date, number of positive reviews, and store page description. We are not responsible for any issues arising from attempting to purchase, download, or play any game.
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